


The Deal-Maker

by JoyfullyyoursDav



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bargaining, Canon Era, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Episode: e044 The Sunken Tomb, Families of Choice, Fate & Destiny, Friendship, Gen, Near Death Experiences, Self-Sacrifice, Sibling Love, Team as Family, Temporary Character Death, Twins, Vex'ahlia-centric
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 09:52:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,635
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14470116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoyfullyyoursDav/pseuds/JoyfullyyoursDav
Summary: In which, Vex'ahlia bargains for her own life and becomes the Raven Queen's fate-touched champion.Also in which, Vex's friends watch her die and react accordingly.





	The Deal-Maker

When he saw Vex fall, his first thought was  _H_ _ow am I supposed to sing about this?_ It was a rotten thought, unintentional, one he would banish to the Nine Hells if he could. But Scanlan had never been able to control his thoughts. It was what made him a natural storyteller. It also made him a bad friend.

He knew immediately that she was dead. Collectively, Vox Machina had been knocked out more times than he could count. But this was different. Black energy shot out from the sarcophagus, past Percy. The damned bear shook it off when it hit him in the face. But when it struck Vex, she staggered. Her limbs flailed unnaturally as she fell, lifeless, to the floor. Without a sound, without even a grimace. Her body was suddenly a _body_. There was no mistaking it.

From behind him, he heard Vax say, “What the fuck happened?” And Scanlan thought another equally terrible thought. _How can I ever tell this story?_ His fingers twitched, as if dancing along the keyholes of a flute. A decades-old nervous tic. And then he thought, _Heal, inspire, do something._ And he hated himself a little bit more that it took three tries before he thought to help.

*

At first, Grog wasn’t sure. He’d seen death before, of course. Been the cause of a lot of it. Death was bloody and quick and loud and slow all at once. Death was _obvious_. It announced itself with a rage and a scream.

The first time he’d seen death, he’d been small. His father had beat a herd member to death with his fists. Much later, Grog learned that it had been his older brother. “He had it coming,” Stonejaw told him once it was done. The lesson being: death was what they did.

When Pike died, his whole body quaked. He picked up the pieces of her, not knowing what else to do. And when they brought her back – harder and fiercer and angrier than she’d been before – he understood that death was _not_ what they did. Not this new family. They did life.

There, in that tomb, what shocked him was how easily Vex died. Toppled right over. No blood, no scream. No bits to be scooped up. Grog hung back, unsure. Pike wasn’t there. Pike always said that as long as she was around, she’d save them like they’d saved her. But they were alone now, without her, in a tomb with Death that didn’t act like it should. Didn’t leave them alone like Grog knew it was supposed to. So he stood against the cold wall, and waited.

*

He could never imagine Vex dying. Out of them all, she seemed the most alive. Pike had already died once before. Vax either lurked in the shadows or threw himself into fights, a historically lethal combination. Keyleth had the air of someone marching to their destiny, which gave her a baseline of finality. Grog fought every battle as if it were his last, so it was easy to imagine that any battle might be. And Scanlan carried himself like he had seen all there was to see, done everything worth doing, so death never seemed too far off.

As for him, he was only surprised he wasn’t dead already. Some demon’s cruel trick, perhaps.

Vex was different. Alive. _Present_ , more so than the rest. Right after the life was knocked out of her, as she fell backwards, Percy thought of the way she looked when she was flying. He imagined her soaring beneath Whitestone, magic carrying her high, wind whipping her braid away from her face. The expression she wore when she flew – that alone could convince him she’d never die.

He couldn’t understand this shell on the floor in front of him. The motionless body with blue feathers in its hair. He blinked, but it stayed, unchanging.

*

Keyleth’s gut reaction was that she was dreaming. Having a vision. She must still be preparing to begin her Aramente; she must not have left home yet. Nothing that had happened recently could be real. There must have been no illithid, no beholders, no vampires or dragons or cold, consuming death. How _ridiculous_ it was, really, to think any of this could be real.

No. Everything she’d seen and done was some kind of premonition. A message, a warning. _Do not go down this path._

But then she heard Zahra’s scream echo through the tomb, and she watched as Vax darted forward and pulled Vex’s body onto his lap. And she felt cold sweat break out along her brow. This was real. Vex, protected by a bear and a brother and her own steely resolve. Vex, untouchable by every definition of the word. Dead on the floor.

She dropped to her knees. _Kashaw!_ someone screamed, and it took a moment before she realized it was her.

*

Vax hadn’t let her out of his sight in days. Not since the dragons attacked. He’d followed her on reckless looting missions and boring shopping trips. He’d sat beside her in taverns late into the night, long after he’d wanted to go to bed. And it had been working. They were still alive. Vex hadn’t been killed by dragons or haunted skulls or surprise attacks. They had just defeated a beholder, for fuck’s sake. The danger was supposed to be over, on hiatus while they collected treasure. Yet somehow, in the few minutes Vex was out of his sight, as they were all still bathing in the warm glow of victory, she died. She was  _dead_.

And he was numb. Utterly unable to comprehend what he was seeing: his sister’s lifeless body on the damp stone floor. He ran to her, pulling her close. He uncorked a healing potion with his teeth, sloshed it into her slack mouth, spilling it all down her armor. Her skin was already cold. Her eyes were open and unseeing, locked on a spot above him. A spot he couldn’t reach.

And their cleric, the dour human with the creepy two-toned eyes, wasn’t _doing_ anything. Kash was crouching next to him. Hands hanging useless at his sides.

“I m-might be able to bring her back,” he stammered.

“Do it,” Vax snarled at him. “Why are you hesitating? Do it.”

“You don’t understand,” Kash said. “Dragons will be the least of your problems if Vesh –”

“I don’t care. _Do it._ ”

Kash pushed himself backwards, shaking his head. “No. I-I can’t. I’m sorry.”

Vax had a dagger in his hand before he’d made the decision to grab one. He pointed it at the soft spot beneath Kash’s chin. “Do. It.” His voice sounded ripped from his throat.

Kash stared at him with his unnerving eyes. “Kill me if you want,” he said flatly. “It’s nothing compared to what She would do.”

And as Vax tensed to plunge the dagger forward, to kill what kept his sister dead, he felt a shudder course through Vex’s body. A tremor and a deep, gulping breath. Her eyelids fluttered, dark lashes like the wings of a bird. And she smiled.

*

It wasn’t so different from falling asleep. Except that it happened fast, a mere flicker of nothingness before Vex opened her eyes again. She was lying on her back, cradled inside a massive, bone-white palm.

She knew she was dead. She tasted ash and smoke, and she thought of Byroden. She thought of her mother. What else _could_ she be, right now, but gone? She sat up. In front of her, through the darkness, a massive porcelain mask appeared. Pale and expressionless, shadowed on each side by long black hair, the mask loomed closer.

“Are you Death?” Vex asked.

“I am called many things,” a voice replied. Sourceless. All around her, like the caws of many crows.

A thought occurred to Vex suddenly and slowly at the same time, a vial of viscous acid bursting inside her. “You’re the Raven Queen,” she said, and the mask nodded once. Vex thought again of her mother. Elaina’s kind eyes, crinkled at the corners. The way she always threw her head back when she laughed. She would see her again, very soon.

Then, like a bolt to the chest, she thought of Vax’ildan. She remembered waking up in his arms, her face wet with his tears, on the steps of the ziggurat just a few weeks ago. She thought of her friends. Scanlan’s voice. Grog’s booming laughter. Pike’s warm hands. Keyleth’s smile. Percy, biting his nails. She thought of Trinket, nuzzling her awake in the morning. She thought of her brother, reaching for her hand in a quiet forest.

She didn’t consider the words before she said them. But once she spoke, they echoed like magic in the dark.

“Let’s make a deal,” she said.

And to her surprise, the Raven Queen nodded.

*

“ _Vex_ ,” her brother said. “You’re – you’re alive. How the fuck…?”

Vex wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling herself upright. “I’m okay,” she said. A refrain she was used to saying by now. “I’m alright.”

She was cold, but he was the one who was shaking. She pulled back to look at him. Vax was ashen. Eyes wide, hands trembling, he looked like a boy again. She glanced around at the rest, and they were all staring. Shell shocked. Frightened. Looking at her as if she was a ghost.

Before she could say anything else, Vax’s fingers flew to her hair. “Vex,” he said. He pulled one of the feathers from behind her ear, offered it to her like he had many years ago.

The feather, once brilliantly blue, had turned black. A shadow pinched between her fingers. Marked. Changed suddenly, yet unsurprisingly. Fated.

Vex pulled herself to her feet. “Let’s get out of here,” she said. “And I’ll explain everything.”


End file.
